This website is both my personal learning project and my contribution in the struggle to confront the ongoing attacks on rational science and objective learning, that are the hallmarks of the faith-based "skeptics" movement. ~ You'll find a collection of articles and authoritative scientific sources, along with my own essays and in-depth critiques of various denialist writings. ~ Hopefully a resource for the busy, yet discerning student ;-) Feel free to copy and pass along any of the following.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

John O'Sullivan: My Hidden Muse

This recent spate of libelous slander against the dedicated scientist Dr. Michael Mann and the results of his work has taken a disgusting bizarre twist as the Denier Echo-chamber reaches new lows {as mentioned in my previous post}.

Well, it appears another example of projection on the part of deniers desperate to distract attention from the reality of what we are doing to our one and only planet.

Now thanks to the efforts of Andrew Skolnick we can get an insight into what may have spawned this latest attack strategy. It seems that good'ol o'sullivan has an intimate acquaintance with the topic of pedophilia.

I'll allow Andrew Skolnick to take it from here. The following has been copied from Michael Mann's Facebook comments section.

It's
depressingly hilarious that one of the loudest-mouthed crackpots
"linking" Prof. Mann to "pedophiles" is a former school teacher whose
career ended in scandal almost a decade ago following his arrest and
trial for sending dozens of obscene text
messages to a 16-y-o school girl. Former high school art teacher John
O'Sullivan was acquitted after his step-daughter testified she had sent
the obscene messages -- testimony that the judge said he did not find
entirely credible. O'Sullivan then published an autobiographical novel
(titled "Vanilla Girl") in which he defends what he called "kiddie
fiddling" -- I kid you not.*

Two days ago, John O'Sullivan, the leader of a group of global warming
denier wackos called the Sky Dragon Slayers (which includes Tim Ball),
published an even more rabid diatribe than Steyn's in which he claims
Prof. Mann is "linked to" the pedophile Sandusky and that he has
"lawyered Up after Penn State Child Sex Link." That's followed by his
usual libelous accusations of "scientific misconduct," "criminal fraud,
etc,"

O'Sullivan claims to be legal scholar and a lawyer with a law degree
from University of Surrey and that he has "successfully litigated for 13
years in New York and Federal 2nd District courts." He claims to be a
science writer with major articles published around the world including
in National Review and Forbes magazines. He also claimed to be employed
as a legal consultant by Pearlman Lindholm, the law firm defending Tim
Ball in the matter of Mann vs. Ball, et al. before the Supreme Court of
British Columbia. None of that is true. He is an utterly shameless
humbug. In 2010, he purchased his "law degree" from the online diploma
mill "Hill University" that sells any degree in any field with a
"promised delivery in just 14 days!"

But this time, Mr.
O'Sullivan may have stuck his big foot so deeply into his mouth, it may
emerge out his backside and kick him in the butt. For example, he says
in the article published Saturday that the "case isn’t going well for
Mann because he appears to be stalling about complying with a court
motion to hand over his hidden 'dirty laundry' metadata to [the Supreme
Court of British Columbia]... If Mann persists in failing to comply the
court may find him in contempt and dismiss his case and award
substantial damages in favor of Ball."

Once again, this
defender of "kiddie-fiddlers" is just making it up. The Supreme Court
of BC has issued no such order. It will be interesting to see what
Prof. Mann's attorneys will do with this.

*-- The following
quotes are from O'Sullivan's self-published autobiographical novel
"Vanilla Girl," which he describes as a "fact-based crime story of a
teacher's struggle to control his erotic obsession with a schoolgirl":

"I tell my online friends that the age of consent varies widely from
jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The median seems to range from fourteen to
sixteen years, but globally ages can range anything from nine to
twenty-one. It sickens me that people, so-called civilized, intelligent
people can’t see it. Their clinical, sanitized attitudes toward the
appropriate age of consent have drifted upwards in modern times-Ignorant
people rally against me-against us-us free thinkers.” "Too
many fools still believe and need to believe that children are
‘innocent’ and ‘pure’, that is, asexual, untainted by sexual thoughts,
feelings or urges. But, you see, Leo, you and me know this is not true
even of very young children, and it is certainly not true of children
much past the age of ten or eleven.” "By looking at the female
waist to hip ratio, you know when a female is of the right age for
reproduction. At that time, and if the mind is mature enough you can
argue that you are dealing with a woman and not a child. If nature says
she a woman then she is a woman-it’s not arbitrary like the age of
consent laws that vary so wildly throughout the world from country to
country, jurisdiction to jurisdiction."

By
the way, nearly all of those snippets and more are contained in my
affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court of British Columbia in the
matter of Mann vs. Ball. I'm a journalist who has been investigating
John O'Sullivan and his global warming-denying
band of Sky Dragon Slayers. I don't know Prof. Mann and have never
communicated with him. But I do know John O'Sullivan, obviously better
than most. You can read the affidavits and accompanying exhibits here:

No.
I didn't file a complaint against Tim Ball's lawyer Michael Scherr at
the Victoria law firm Pearlman Lindholm. I filed it against O'Sullivan
for fraudulently claiming to be a "legal consultant" employed by
Pearlman Lindholm to help represent Tim Ball before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

The Law Society of British Columbia was established by law to regulate
the practice of lawyers in British Columbia and is therefore charged
with protecting the public from humbugs like O'Sullivan, who falsely
claim to be authorized to practice law and represent clients in British
Columbia courts.

As a result of my complaint, the Law Society
decided to open an investigation of Michael Scherr, for allegedly
allowing an unauthorized person to practice law. The LSBC investigator
found no evidence that Scherr knowingly assisted O'Sullivan in his scam
and closed its case in Nov. 2011 stating:

"Based on the
information before me, I am satisfied that the concern raised in this
complaint has been adequately drawn to Mr. Scherr's attention through
this process and does not support an allegation of professional
misconduct on Mr. Scherr's part that would warrant further action by the
Law Society. I have no doubt that in addition to the professional
embarrassment this complaint has caused him, it has also provided a
valuable lesson which will cause him to reflect on when it is important
to embark on a line of inquiry in the future."

Unfortunately,
it doesn't appear Mr. Scherr learned much from that lesson. In April,
he submitted a Notice of Application to the Supreme Court requesting all
of John O'Sullivans writings and communications with Tim Ball be
excluded from evidence because O'Sullivan was employed by Tim Ball as a
legal consultant and therefore has "solicitor-client privilege."

Because
of that Notice of Application, I was asked to submit my affidavits
showing all of O'Sullivans claimed law credentials are bogus.
Hopefully, the Law Society of British Columbia will notice how little
its lesson was heeded.

Because O'Sullivan would not reply to
the Law Society's requests for information and because he resides in
England (not in New York as he claims), where they can't touch him, the
LSBC closed its file, with the option of reopening it should O'Sullivan
resume claiming to be representing clients in British Columbia courts.

Here's
graphic evidence of the humbug lawyer's obsession with pedophilia. John
O'Sullivan created this montage of nude photos of himself and a photo
of a bare-breasted young girl I believe resembles the 16-y-o girl he had
been accused of sending dozens of obscene messages in 2003.

It's on his Myspace site where he used the pseudonym "J Daley O'Neal."
("Leo Bloom" is the name he used for his main character in his
autobiographical novel "Vanilla Girl." It's a rip off of the main
character in James Joyces' "Ulysses," from which O'Sullivan borrowed a
lot.)

So this is what the contrarian-skeptical community is reduced to in order to keep denying what rational-skeptics understand. That society is radically altering the foundations of our climate in a way that will be very self-destructive to that society.

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

{edited 12/11/2014}

I know there are too many typos, what can I say, eyes aren't what they were, I get rushed, and always did have a thing with transposing…{well, I also hated high school "english" classes... bad call that one.}. Doing the best I can with what I got. Embarrassing though it is, it's better than doing nothing. Besides, it's the issues and reasoning that we should be worrying about.

Though I'm in my own little world here, I'm also constantly learning and evolving and do get occasional feedback and when I reread stuff and find errors or omissions or garbage, I fix it. If it's major I'll acknowledge it with an 'edited' note, minor stuff I don't bother.

~ ~ ~

I hardly keep track of Anthony's latest antics (besides, with Sou on the job why bother - can't beat her insights). It's just me over here and I have more important things to do with my precious hours - still now that Anthony's luster has been wearing thin he's put his energy into discovering and honing new fresh faces to carry on the public show of the Republican/Libertarian strategic attack on science.

He seems to have transitioned into a ring-leader, perhaps mentor/coach would be better, producer? At least that's how Mr. Steele and his antics of the past year has gotten me to think about it. So in that regard this blog remains about WUWT's brand of thinking and logic and my struggle to understand the anatomy of the fraud they've perpetrated against mankind. {December 2014}

_____________________________

ok, now some recommended websites:

This blog was started in April 2013 and is written by an actual scientist so it has a refreshingly serious objective air to it, plus he does a good clear job of explaining complex issues.

Tamino, an acknowledged statistical/mathematical expert of the highest order, at Open Mind also does an excellent job of holding Anthony’s feet to the fire with clearly explained facts and math. Check it out:http://tamino.wordpress.com~ ~ ~

And of course, there is the excellent, most up to date internet depository of climate studies and information for the non-expert public.

Then there's RealClimate.org the scientist's commentary site. Run by working climate scientists intended to help the interested public and journalists sort through the complexities of the climatology. They provide "quick response to developing stories and provide the context" that is too often missing from public media's depiction. {But, you better be serious and have some real science education/understanding under your belt if you want to keep up.}

I remember back in da day, good websites/blogs were few and far between. But over the past years that's been changing to the point that it's impossible to keep up with them all. Here's an incomplete, and long overdue addition to my above list: